Pharma Services
and Technologies

Investing in a Shared Vision

Meeting the Challenges Pharma Services and Technologies

The issues that pharma and biotech manufacturers face span both clinical and commercial areas of their organizations and are expected to increase in intensity over time, requiring best-in-class capabilities from outsourced providers. Companies best positioned to win this business will offer an integrated suite of services and technologies that create superior clinical and commercial performance for their customers.

Excellere is looking to partner with and grow successful PST companies that are intimately familiar with their customers’ most pressing challenges and offer differentiated, customized solutions to meet evolving needs.

Target Sectors

  • Pharma Tech
  • Clinical services/CRO
  • Commercialization support
  • Regulatory pathway & compliance
  • CDMO

Financial Parameters

  • Targeted minimum EBITDA of $7.0 million for
  • Platform acquisition (no minimum for add-ons)
  • High-margin business reflecting strong value proposition
  • Stable client base diversified across multiple customers, brands, and therapeutic areas
  • Clearly defined growth strategy

Sub-Sector Spotlight

Pharma Tech

For more than a decade Excellere has been at the forefront of investing in companies and solutions that leverage data and technology to help pharmaceutical manufacturers develop, enable access to, and distribute products that improve the lives of their patients. Our longstanding interest in Pharma Tech is influenced by the evolving landscape in pharmaceutical development and commercialization. There has been a proliferation of innovative technologies designed to overcome the standard issues a manufacturer faces when trying to create and market a new product.

Among the challenges that these technologies seek to address are:

  1. The rapidly rising cost and elongated timelines to develop, gain approval for, and commercialize drugs.
  2. Increasing pressure to demonstrate the clinical and economic value of therapies in the “real world,” driven by a heightened focus on value-based care from government and commercial payors.
  3. The emergence of novel therapies, including personalized medicines and those targeting rare or orphan diseases, products that require modified patient experience paradigms and unique patient recruitment strategies, as well as provider targeting, logistics services, outcomes reporting, and value demonstration.
  4. Greater expectations among patients to take control of and manage their own health data.

Pharmaceutical technology companies that offer greater speed-to-market, support clinical outcomes, enhance the payor value proposition, and provide greater connectivity and engagement with the patient are poised to capture an outsized share of the market’s growth. We’re confident that Excellere’s foundation as a service organization will be essential to our Pharma Tech partners as they take advantage of this enormous opportunity.

PHARMA TECH
INVESTMENT FOCUS

Excellere is actively seeking investment opportunities in the following areas of the Pharma Tech industry where we have previous direct experience and domain expertise, or have completed extensive industry research and developed a strategic vision for growth.

  • Adaptive/virtual clinical trials
  • Adherence solutions
  • Digital discovery/AI
  • Digital therapeutics
  • Logistics services
  • Patient recruitment & engagement
  • Real-time/remote patient monitoring
  • Supply chain compliance
  • Value-based contract adjudication

PHARMA TECH
THEMES OF INTEREST

Capabilities

  • Clinical trial automation
  • Clinical trial design and support
  • Patient recruitment and retention

Applications

  • Biologics/biosimilars
  • Oncology-focused services
  • Personalized medicine/cell & gene therapy

Specialization

  • Data management and analytics
  • Global capabilities
  • Pharma technology

Sub-Sector Spotlight

Clinical Services

While the United States has historically been the engine behind life-changing breakthroughs in pharmaceutical and biotech products, rising clinical trial costs, a tougher regulatory environment, decreasing trial success rates, generic competition, and increasing pressure from payers are impairing pharma’s ability to generate ROI from its R&D spend. Less than 12% of drugs in Phase I trials are approved and it takes an average of 10 years for a drug to be developed and approved. Reports published by EvaluatePharma, Deloitte and BCG indicate that the ROI in pharma R&D has been steadily declining since 1990 and is now well below the cost of capital for pharma manufacturers.

At the same time, demand for therapies is steadily increasing due to the aging population in the U.S. and associated increase in drug utilization. Each day, around 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. On average, seniors over age 65 take nearly 14 prescriptions per year.

In response to the increasingly complex drug development environment, pharma manufacturers are seeking outsourced clinical services providers with differentiated capabilities and a proven ability to accelerate the clinical trial timeline, reduce cost, and increase the probability of success. Clinical services providers with demonstrated expertise in progressive clinical trials protocols have the ability to capitalize on the proliferation of new molecules in the areas of specialty pharmaceuticals, biosimilars, and personalized medicines.

Furthermore, eclinical services companies that effectively leverage technology and other methods to automate specific elements of clinical trials processes are well positioned to succeed under the new paradigm for pharmaceutical development.

Sub-Sector Spotlight

Commercialization Services

As costs expand and timelines elongate in bringing new products through the clinical trial process, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly focusing on commercialization strategies to achieve return-on-investment targets. At the same time, the shift toward specialty and high-cost drugs within the clinical trial pipeline, with more products being brought to market by smaller manufacturers with fewer internal resources, and increasing complexity in commercial contracting (including governmental pricing pressure and formulary management strategies among commercial payors) has created a sharp increase in demand for outsourced commercialization services. Excellere’s thesis in commercialization services centers on the opportunity to surround manufacturers with a suite of integrated, best-in-class capabilities that deliver superior value to the client compared to single-point services providers and large broadline CRO offerings. These integrated solutions allow decision-makers to manage fewer outsourced providers while facilitating a transfer of clinical and therapeutic area knowledge across the range of commercialization activities.

Excellere has substantial experience supporting successful buy-and-build strategies among outsourced commercialization service companies. In 2014, Excellere invested in Trialcard, a founder-owned provider of medication adherence and hub services solutions. Over three years of partnership, the team made significant investments in technology development, transforming TrialCard into a leading, full-service provider of patient access and product support solutions, doubling the Company’s run-rate EBITDA through organic growth. Additionally, in 2016, Excellere invested in Two Labs, a provider of product launch and trade management services. During the four-year partnership, the company executed on a buy-and-build strategy, growing revenue nearly 5x by enhancing the commercial platform, funding the internal development of new capabilities, and strategic acquisitions.

COMMERCIALIZATION SERVICES
CAPABILITIES OF INTEREST

Excellere is actively seeking investment opportunities in the following areas of the Pharma Tech industry where we have previous direct experience and domain expertise, or have completed extensive industry research and developed a strategic vision for growth.

  • Adherence services
  • Data analysis and reporting
  • HEOR/RWE
  • Market access
  • Medical affairs
  • Medical communications
  • Physician and KOL engagement
  • Product launch
  • Strategic consulting